Photographic-plate holder



Unirse STATES ATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH BUCHTEL, OF PORTLAND, OREGON.

PHOTOGRAPHlC-PLATE HOLDER.

Spccleaton forming part of Letters Patent No. 93,669, dated August 17, 189.

To all whoml t may concern.'

Be it known that I, JOSEPH BUCHTEL, of Portland, in the county of Multnomah, in the State of Oregon, have invented a new and Improved Photographic Tablet or Plate-Holder; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making, with the letters of reference marked thereon, this specification.

The object of 'myinventinn is to save wasted material in photographic operations, and is intended to supersede some constructions now in use for the same purpose.

The practical photographer is often annoyed.

by the drippings from his sensitized plates, (these drippings are principally nitrate of silver in solution,) and often they fall on the licor of the operators room, damaging the costume of his patron, and making disagreeable black spots on his carpet; and, more, his tablet or plate-holder is in a few years entirely reduced .to rottenness in the lower part, where these (in corners, &c.)-drippings accumulate.

This invention is intended to obviate another difculty. ln the tablet in common use there are a number of frames-one inside the other-each smaller than the iirst, and so on, for the different sizes of glass, ferrotypeplates, &c., which are commonly called .HT-ij: n n #n nu &C 7 there be ing other larger and smaller sizes, and for each of these sizes there is a separate frame for placing in the tablet, the larger on the outside and continuing smaller to the center or smallest size. For large cameras there are eight or nine of these frames sometimes, and by use and wear they sooner or later get out of focus --that is, some size intermediate will be more used than the small ones, and so will be made to approach the lenses, and, as a.

matter of course, the small ones will approach in like manner, be they ever so true of themselves. The photographer, finding his tablet out of order, adjusts the image or ground glass 7 to the size he uses most frequently, and the result is that neither his large nor small pictures are sharp7 or distinct, and, altera time, finds himseltin trouble all the time. To obviate these disorders, the waste of his silver, the corrosion and eating of his tablet by the drippingsand the usual wearing out of focus, the device is principally contrived.

To enable others to make and use the invention, the following reference to the drawings will now be made.

Figure 1 is a perspective View, and Fig. 2, vert-ical plan, looking from the top.

Ais the frame of the tablet 5 B, the shield7 or screen, which is drawn aside when the sensitive plate is exposed 5 C, the door. Two l right and leftpieces, E and E', approach, each and D', (above and below.) Two pitcher-lipped vials, F and F', on the inside. of whose lips are two supporting-points, L and L', approach two other supporting-points, H and H', in a dovetail groove, N' and N'one in either piece E or E'. All of the pointsLL' H H' are thus adjustable in grooves up and down and from right to left on the ways D D', thus fitting any size of glass or plate within the range of the tablet. To affect the condition of focus, the four points L L H H', being supported by the pieces E E', are made to approach the lenses by springs J J J' J', there being one at each end of either piece E or E', working aga-inst the back side of the ways DA and D'. These same points move from the lenses by the screwing against the ways D D' any of the screws K K K' K' or all of them, the springs taking up the lost motion andkeeping a firm bearing. There are two springs, I I', which press the pieces EE' downward against the way D', to assist in keeping the pieces whereverthey may be placed. The pitcher-lipped vials F F' are firmly attached to a spring, G or G'. About the middle of the length of these springs are projections on either edge, which fit closely into the grooves N (dovetail).or N'. Then the vials become full, they are raised up to the opening M or M', (this opening being the dovetail cut away on each side,) and taken outand their contents poured into a proper bottle or tlask. The upper supporting-points, H H', are in like manner introduced into the dovetails through the openings M M. The supporting-points L L' H H' should be in the same plane, and against these the sensitized plate rests, as it now does on the corners of a coniinon tablet. The project-ing points L L' are altogether inside the lip of the vial. The under and rear ends of the post-s H H' slope from opposite sides of the tablet, on ways D downward und toward the glass, so that zr drop would come to the glass were one on th em. In each end of the pieces E E is a, groove large enough to admit; the springs, the pieeesD D, .sind the movements described relating to the screws :1nd springs.

That I claim asmy invention islhe two movable upright pieces E E', with their dovetail grooves N N', the four springs J J J' J", :1nd two springs, I the vials F F', 

